If you were taken by the OnagoFly drone’s Indiegogo campaign, you are not alone and you’re in the right place. This is a resource to hopefully get some help in your quest for a cancellation, a refund, or replacement of the OnagoFly drone.

I stand by every word I write, which is why the crazy amount of hyperlinks. Proof that this is not occurring in a vacuum.

Some history: I ‘backed’ the project in mid-December 2015 after I got a promoted ad while doing some Christmas shopping online. As an experienced drone operator (DJI Phantom 3 is my drone-of-choice, but living in DC’s NFZ means little convenient flying time), I was taken in by the backer video; amazing visual quality, smooth control, a ‘follow me’ feature, the toss-and-fly option, obstacle avoidance. All in a FAA-allowed small drone that would not require registration or certain restrictions. The expectation was it would ship in March. My credit card was charged in early Janaury 2016, once the initial phase was completed. They continued to sell as an ‘InDemand’ campaign through Indiegogo until late May 2016, despite not meeting original backers goal dates.

Indiegogo said once money was transferred, they were pretty much done. Once OnagoFly had their money, they hid behind Indiegogo’s ‘no refund after funding’ policy. Despite broken shipping dates, violating FTC’s “30 Day Rule” for the ability to cancel delayed products, no refunds were being entertained. Despite violating several of Indiegogo’s Terms of Use, the campaign continued. Perhaps the biggest red flag came at the conception of the campaign; the official email address for Acumen Robot Intelligence, the parent company of OnagoFly was AcumenRobot@gmail.com. A generic gmail account for a company that was planning to sell consumer products? The sense that this was a scam deepened. A mysterious Sam Tsu was said to be the campaign creator, but his email was also that gmail account, per Indiegogo.

In June, I was told that, despite trying to cancel the order on at least 8 occasions, it was in fact shipped to me from China in early May. I never received the order; had I, I would have immediately declined and returned to sender. Yet again, more #OnagoLies.